Do you eat at least two servings of fruit each day, as recommended in nutritional guidelines? I find it easy in the summer with cherries and nectarines and strawberries around, but a little harder in winter when it feels like it’s just apples and oranges for months. Although I feel I could eat raspberries and just raspberries through out the summer, it pays to toss a few into the freezer, so they can brighten a winter’s morning. They lose their shape a little when defrosted but this doesn’t matter when they are mixed in with the porridge oats (oatmeal).
What I really love about this recipe is the oven dried apples. A couple of years ago I went through a phase of snacking on bought dried apricots. It took me several weeks to realise that, if I ate dried apricots in the morning, by the afternoon I was wheezing. Sulphites are commonly added to dried fruits to help maintain colour, and can cause allergy type symptoms in certain people . I don’t usually react to foods so I think this particular batch must have been abnormally high in sulphites. All the same, it put me off dried fruit. That is, until I realised how easy it is to dry apples myself. You don’t need special equipment, just an oven and a sharp knife. For very minimal effort, you get a chewier sweeter apple slice compared with raw apple, but without exposing yourself to the sulphites.
Raspberry Ripple Oatmeal
Serves 2
1 cup rolled oats, soaked in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes or longer, ie overnight if you don’t want to wait in the morning
1 1/4 cups skim milk
Pinch salt
2/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1. Combine oats, milk and salt in a saucepan. Simmer over a low heat for fifteen minutes or until porridge (oatmeal) is creamy and the oats are soft.
2. Add raspberries. It’s OK to use them directly from the freezer, the heat of the oatmeal will defrost them. Mix in well, to get streaks of raspberry running through the oatmeal.
3. Divide between two plates, top with dried apple slices and serve with brown sugar.
Oven dried apple slices
Apples
1. Preheat oven to 100 C (215 F)
2. Slice apples as finely as possible, in rounds, beginning from the base of the apple. A mandolin would be ideal for this, but a sharp knife works just fine. Keep the slices as even as possible, so they ll cook at the same speed.
3. Remove any seeds as you go, but you can leave the husky core in.
4. Place apple slices onto a wire rack and then onto a baking tray.
5. Roast for 2 hours at 100C or until the apples look dried. They will still be a little chewy.
In theory these will keep for about a week in the refrigerator but mine never last longer than the day they are made!
How is this recipe planet friendly?
- It’s vegetarian and could even be vegan if you use soy milk. Not every breakfast needs bacon!
- It’s made from whole foods, not chemicals.
- The apples are tastier, and prettier if they are kept unpeeled. The added bonus is a reduction in food waste.